choco cake

My partner's birthday cake!
He did ask for a chocolate cake and that's what he got. I have to say my daughter was as excited as he was. (maybe even more)

The sponge cake
dry ingredients: wholemeal spelt flour, tensai sugar, baking soda, powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt
wet ingredients: grated zucchini, stewed apple, rice milk, sunflower oil, coconut oil, apple cider vinegar

chocolate frost: raw cocoa butter, raw cocoa powder, raw cashew, avocado, agave syrup, maple syrup, vanilla,

My daughter got to lick all the spoons and utensils after making the chocolate frost! and she didn't know about the avocado...(unfortunately she is not a big fan of the nutritious fruit)

The note on Tensai sugar... It is an unprocessed sugar that is derived form beet grew in Hokkaido. (north of Japan) The most of plants grown for sweeteners are grown in warm climate therefore it has a tendency to cool the body. Tensai sugar grown in colder region is not as cooling as other sweeteners. Also it has more nutritional content than white sugar and has a bit of lactobacillus as well.

The ethics of what we eat

Today I'd like to mention about this vital read. The ethics of what we eat by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.
I have personally listened to Peter Singer talk at a sustainable festival one year and it is not an exaggeration to say that the day changed my lifestyle completely.
I have a deep respect for what he has done and continues to do for animals, environment and human rights.

This book is well researched and without being preachy it gives a very important message. Yes. what you decide to buy and eat does make a greater impact than you may imagine.

The issue "ethical eating" is raised following three families in America. One follows the Standard American Diet [SAD], which contains high levels of meat consumption and fast food. Their primary consideration is availability and cost. The second, although aware of more ethical option their purchase is influenced by the available time and convenience due to their busy lifestyle and family demand. The third, a "vegan" family has managed to shun all animal foods and seek out organically grown food whenever possible. Their greatest problem is acquiring foods that meet their standards and not being able to fit in to their "average" community.

It covers factory farming, labelling, seafood, local eating, fair trading, vegan and vegetarianism.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested to know more about where our food comes from and how we could help ethically.
Our food choice is a form of political action. why give money to those who are doing unethical things in the world?

friends of the earth

I don't know why I haven't written about FOE before. I have been working there for a couple of years now. I cook there once a week. (mainly tuesdays)

The shop has food co-op, book shop and people work for campaigns etc upstairs.

The food co-op is an ethical trader that has been going in Melbourne for more than 30 years. It provides affordable, low packaged (bulk) food, fruit and vegetables, health and eco-cleaning products. The particular emphasis is to provide natural, organic produce that is grown and prepared locally - preferably by small companies and producers.
It has a cafe and serves lunch from 12pm till it runs out. We mainly use fresh organic produce to create mixed lunch plates from monday to saturday. The menu changes everyday, using the freshest seasonal ingredients. On sunday we have vegan pies and salad. Tempting cakes, muffins etc and fair trade coffee and teas are served all day.

The Bookshop provides a diverse range of information on environmental and social justice issues, as well as wide range of eco-friendly and fairly made products, including stationery, clothing, footwear and bags.

FOE is open
10am - 6pm Monday to Friday

10am - 4pm Saturday

11am - 4pm Sunday

By shopping there you will be helping not only FOE but the environment too. It is a great community shop.

palm oil

Palm oil is something that I try to avoid all the time. It is pretty easy for me because I hardly buy any commercially processed food and when I do I buy organic or biodynamic products as much as possible.

why avoid palm oil?

Because today, the most common cause of deforestation and fragmentation in Indonesia and Malaysia is related to palm oil development. This is costing our environment and lives of creatures who live there.
In SE Asia alone, the equivalent of 300 football fields are deforested every hour for palm oil production and typically costs the lives of up to 50 Orang-utans each week.

Australians unknowingly consume on average 10 kilograms of palm oil each year because the manufactureres do not have to label the oil in theire ingredients.

We have a right to know if the products you buy contain palm oil. However without legislation change, palm oil will remain unlabelled and you just won't know if the food products you are buying are pushing orangutans to extinction.

there are a few organisation which are trying to stop this.
Please visit their websites and sign the petition.


http://www.zoo.org.au/PalmOil
http://www.orangutan.org.au/palmoil.html
http://www.palmoilaction.org.au


Meanwhile next time you go to a store to buy a product have a look at the ingredients. If it contains vegetable oil there is a good chance that contains palm oil.
If not it proberbly GM corn, soy or canola oil anyway.
avoid the products if you can.

tonight's dinner-seitan cutlets

here is tonight's dinner.

I made seitan yesterday. I always made them myself with wheat flour but today I tried half wheat and half spelt. It did work!

Spelt flour does have gluten but a bit easier to digest than wheat gluten. I will try to make it again with 100% spelt next time to see if it works...

Seitan is not a great thing if you are intolerant to gluten but if you are not it is a great alternative to meat. the texture adds a satisfying depth to a meal and high in protein. you can purchase it at a health store etc but it is simple to make. (though takes a bit of time..)

the sauce is barley miso, kombu stock and rice syrup.

sprouted grain bread sticks

I often make my own sprouted essential bread. these bread are so nutritious as only sprouted grains and no flour is used.

Because the weather is getting colder I used oats and rye this time.

as much as I love these bread my daughter is not a big fan of it. so I decided to make a breadstick instead.

I added some wholemeal spelt flour to the sprouted grains which were mashed up in a food processor. mix with enough water to make a non-sticky dough. rest a little and bake till light brown and crispy.

omnivores dilemma by michael pollen 2

I have finished reading "omnivores dilemma".

No wonder it is one of the best selling books on the industrial food issues. The book is well written and contain lots of (scary) informations.

He mentions three options in the book.

1) look away

2)be a vegetarian/vegan

3)look and obtain yourself.

I can't look away and pretend that it is not happening. I don't think I can go and hunt my dinner. (though I do and will grow and gather) So my choice was quite obvious.

One of the very interesting topics that he talks about is a industrial organic businesses. Personally I always try to buy from small organic businesses. Though I have to admit without these industrial businesses the whole organic and sustainable industry would not have become as mainstream as it is today. Because if it is a choice between a conventional and organic/bio dynamic I will always choose latter option.

there will always be a tricky situation. conventional and local or organic and overseas? how about low quality organic products or high quality small conventional businesses?

Question I always ask myself is if I really need it. For example you want to make a lentil soup. You go to a shop and see there is a bag of organically grown lentil from china. do you really need that lentil? or can you replace that with australian organic chickpeas instead?

Do you need to have a banana that has traveled from Queensland or can you eat a local new-season crispy fuji apple? (I am in melbourne)

remember we have a choice...

Here is a picture of these beautiful fuji apples. it must be the best apple season this year

... sorry I couldn't help myself